5 things Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom needs to do better than Breath of the Wild
There it is, the official release date and final name for the new Legend of Zelda. “Bye!” Breath of the Wild 2, “Hello!” Tears of the Kingdom! However, there’s no denying that this game began life as a direct successor to the groundbreaking first Switch Zelda. And the action of Breath of the Wild will probably continue more or less seamlessly and there are probably many parallels in terms of design and gameplay.
Reason enough to think about Breath of the Wild. More specifically, about what a sequel could do better. Because as amazing and influential as the game was and still is, I would welcome a few changes. Let’s start. We don’t have all day.
1. Gone with Breath of the Wild’s Weapon Attrition!
Okay, when the game came out in 2017, I was all over Zelda in terms of that change. I understood what Nintendo wanted to achieve. The game should feel like an adventure vacation, a long, arduous journey that was dangerous and pushed you to the limit of your abilities. It is desirable to impose scarcities on the player. Especially since the game was so full of sandbox systems that it was worth forcing us to rotate our tools. In this way we discovered many new gimmicks and effects. And yet… My goodness, this feature sometimes burdened us with a free time stress.
Running away mid-fight to look for a new weapon isn’t good gameplay. So: Nice try, well intentioned and not without effect in terms of mood. The bottom line is that there is probably no gain for the fun of the game, mainly because the inventory space for weapons is limited.
2. Finally give us real Zelda dungeons again
It’s admirable how the entire open world of Breath of the Wild is really peppered, with small challenges, hidden secrets and shrines as medium-sized puzzle rooms. But the divine beasts don’t even begin to do what makes a good Zelda dungeon. I liked this departure from the classic pattern for this one game. But for Tears of the Kingdom, hopefully we’ll please get back to dungeons that follow clear thematic ideas.
They don’t have to work quite as linearly according to the key-lock principle as they did back then. But let’s return to those dungeons for a few hours and feel that familiar sense of being lost, and those a-ha moments when you’ve solved a mystery. Like a sigh of relief after a dive in murky waters. Yes, dungeons that feel like an adventure in their own right are what I missed in Breath of the Wild.
3. Better rewards in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom please!
Breath of the Wild had a lot of – often quite nice – side quests. However, it often happened that one felt bitterly exhausted by the rewards. I only remember the rebuilding of Taburasa or the inglorious end of the Krog seed quest. Lucky for Breath of the Wild, turning every stone in this world and wanting to see everything was so much fun. Otherwise I would probably have left the side quests at some point. If you’re moving from an action-adventure more in the direction of an open role-playing game, you’re welcome to be a little more imaginative at this point.
More news about Zelda and Tears of the Kingdom
– Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 will be released in May 2023 and will be called Tears of the Kingdom
– What is the real name of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2? Why Nintendo is still hiding the real name
– Zelda Breath of the Wild 2: Italian narrator divulges interesting detail
4. A story in which one takes a more active part
I don’t really want to complain too much, because the Zelda games weren’t very well known for their stories either. But again, as much as Breath of the Wild leaned towards RPG, the story could have been a little more present. Also and especially considering that what bit of history we experience takes place in the past because we need to cure Link’s amnesia. What happens on the present narrative level, on the other hand, is extremely thin and that’s a shame.
In particular, (and small spoiler
to the end at this point) because Breath of the Wild lays the template for a beautifully bittersweet ending itself: Zelda has been keeping Ganon in check for 100 years. What a stunning moment it would have been to finally get to the eternal princess on this game’s climax, only to see her as an old woman who now desperately needs every bit of help. That would have been a twist that we would still shed tears over to this day.
5. Nintendo, finally do it and let’s choose Link’s gender!
Let’s make it short: Link is welcome to be a girl too. None of his talents are strictly gendered, because as a legendary hero he is automatically not a normal person, but rather a magical one, and cleverness, stamina, willpower and gadgets do the rest. The name itself is already sufficiently gender-neutral, the clothes and his hairstyle anyway and he doesn’t speak anyway. What’s stopping Nintendo from giving us the choice of gender at the beginning of the adventure, in a single player adventure without too sharp a narrative focus at that?
Nintendo, it’s about time (actually it was the last time). And you know that, too! Dare yourself!
And those were our five most important suggestions for improvement for the sequel to a game that we’re not the only ones who genuinely love. What bothered you about Breath of the Wild, or are there even things you dislike about Zelda in general that you would like to see changed?
Reference-www.eurogamer.de